Aspects of the present invention are directed to an apparatus and a method for improving data access time and, more particularly, to an apparatus and a method for improving data access time by way of a rewriting of certain meta data.
In currently operating computing systems, when a large amount of contents, such as data, are handled, meta information assumes a relatively important role in managing the contents. Meta information can be generally defined as information that describes a kind and/or a type of information of the contents. The importance of the meta information stems, therefore, from at least the fact that, when meta information is not present, finding particularly desired contents can be difficult.
Typically, meta information and data to which the meta information relates are separately managed by different management systems. In these cases, if the management systems include separate physical media, such as tapes, a problem exists in that, with data and associated meta information stored on physically distributed tapes, if either of the tapes or their respective managing systems fail, it can be difficult to otherwise secure compatibility in system management by, e.g., moving the data or the meta information to another site.
As such, it is generally desirable to provide a system in which data and associated meta information are stored on the same tapes. However, in these systems, it is also necessary to insure that the data and the meta information can be accessed relatively quickly.